Free Weights vs. Exercise MachinesWritten by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT, YFT
Anyone who has ever been in a gym before is familiar with gleaming banks of shiny exercise machines. Coming in all shapes and sizes, they are usually cause for newcomer to gym to pause and ask, “What IS all of that stuff?” Well, according to price that gym paid for any one piece of that equipment, I certainly hope that it not only stimulates your muscles, but also cooks your breakfast, washes your car, and brings kids home from soccer practice! Now question becomes whether or not those machines were worth price, or if you’d be better off doing a home aerobics video with a can of soup in each hand…. Personally, I would advise you to get low-sodium version of soup, serve it up alongside a tomato sandwich, and then go buy yourself some free weights. Yes, that is just my opinion, but it does come with some scientific reasoning behind it. Natural movement vs. Controlled movement One of things that you need to remember is that when you are exercising, you are training for LIFE. You may spend an hour a day at gym, but that still leaves 23 other hours for your muscles to function without aid of that fancy equipment. Whenever you do any given exercise, movement of your body during that exercise is called Range of Motion. The greater and more difficult Range of Motion, more effective exercise is, because your body has to work harder to perform that movement. Let’s take a classic dumbbell bicep curl for our case study. If you aren’t familiar with movement, it is basically performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down at your sides. You concentrically contract your biceps (also known as flexing your elbow) to bring dumbbells up to approximately shoulder level, and then repeat movement for a prescribed number of repetitions. Let’s take that same muscle movement and do it using a bicep curl machine. You sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, and do that same fancy elbow flexing movement to move handles in an upward motion. Pretty easy stuff so far, right? Now let’s examine muscles that are used in this motion. Wait – I thought we were concentrically contracting biceps? That is correct, and if you are using bicep curl machine, that is pretty much ALL you are doing. For one, you are sitting down. You know, like you did all day at work, and then in your car on way to gym. Then, your upper arms are braced on a nice soft pad to keep your upper body stable while you pull handles upwards. The machine has effectively limited muscles used in this exercise to biceps, as well as muscles in your forearms and fingers as you grip handles.
| | My Golden GymWritten by Marcia Passos Duffy
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as byline is included in its entirety (found at end of article). A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated -- please send to editor@theheartofnewengland.com. A .jepg photo of author and her dog are available upon request. Title: "My Golden Gym" Author: Marcia Passos Duffy E-mail: editor@theheartofnewengland.com Web Address: www.TheHeartofNewEngland.com Category: Health/Fitness/Pets “My Golden Gym” By Marcia Passos Duffy Editor & publisher The Heart of New England www.theheartofnewengland.com “Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” -- Ann Landers A year ago, almost to day, I had an epiphany while exercising at my local gym. I was on a treadmill sweating along with about 30 other people, glued to latest CNN horrors on big-screen, when I glanced outside at absolutely gorgeous spring day. That was precise moment when I decided to get a dog. Okay, it wasn’t “precise” moment…because I had been toying with idea for almost a year. But up until that moment last year on treadmill, I felt there was really no good reason to get a dog other than to complicate my already busy life and to add another mouth to feed along with our 2 children, 4 guinea pigs, 3 cats, 3 fish, and a then-leased horse for our daughter. But more I looked outside that day, more I wanted to be out there, walking, maybe even jogging, alongside a furry devoted friend. Yes, dog would have a purpose – it would be my walking dog! An exercise dog. A reason to get out of that stuffy gym and into great outdoors! After all, what was point of living in scenic Northern New England of country if I rarely got outside to enjoy it? And I never walked in woods alone – my New York mentality (where I grew up) and paranoia would not allow it -- my heart raced with every squirrel or bird that snapped a twig or rustled a leaf. My dog would be my protector – at least a deterrent -- against any would-be assassin/rapist/kidnapper lurking in woods. Suddenly, reason to get a dog made perfect sense. In his insightful book, “The New Work of Dogs” John Katz makes case for new role of dogs. Once herders, guard and hunting dogs, now our canine friends have a new work: tending to life, love and family. Dogs need a job, and they will adapt to whatever circumstances their human companions give them. What I wanted from my dog was simple: security while walking in woods and a reason to walk everyday. A survey done a few years ago in Australia showed that dog owners walked an average of 18 minutes more per week than non-dog owners. Studies abound extolling psychological benefits of dog. Plus...dogs are not afraid of dark, are excellent listeners, they’re never critical and never gossip, they follow you
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